Category: Europe

Boar panic grips Great Britain

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, January/February 2007:
LONDON–“Police in Fife have issued a
warning after a wild boar escaped from the
abattoir in St Andrews,” BBC News reported on
November 28, 2006. “The public has been urged
not to approach the animal, which has large tusks
and teeth and may attack if it is cornered or
threatened.”
In truth, any pig can deliver a
bone-crunching bite, and any frightened boar or
sow can become deadly.
But the BBC warning was relatively
understated compared to much recent Fleet Street
hyperbole about feral European boars.

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Fur trim trade exploits ambiguous attitudes

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, December 2006:
LONDON–Fashion superstar Kate Moss
designs garments for Topshop, a firm with a
policy against using fur–but as a model, the
role that propelled her to fame, Moss wears furs
for Burberry. Her paradoxical alignments reflect
the ambiuity of a fashion market in which
traditional highpriced fur coats have been “out”
for nearly 20 years, yet cheap imported fur trim
is selling as never before.
The London Independent in a series of
November and early December 2006 features
reported “a growing backlash against soaring
sales of fur,” which has yet to show much sign
of reversing the fur trim boom.
British fur sales are up 30% in two
years, The Independent said, “with £41 million
of new fur products,” about 1,000 tons’ worth,
“imported every year into a U.K. market now worth
an estimated £500 million.”

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Dutch Party of the Animals wins 2 seats

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, December 2006:
AMSTERDAM–Two candidates fielded by the Dutch Party of the
Animals on November 22, 2006 won seats in the 150-member Dutch
legislature.
“We are thrilled,” party leader Marianne Thieme said.
“Finally we can start realizing our party’s highest priority, namely
ending all animal suffering. We want a constitutional amendment
guaranteeing animals the right to freedom from pain, fear and stress
caused by humans. Let’s begin,” Thieme suggested, “by easing the
suffering of cows, pigs, and chickens stuck in factory farms.”

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European Commission votes to ban dog & cat fur

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, December 2006:
Brussels–The European Commission on November 20 adopted a
proposal to ban the import, export, and sale of cat and dog fur
throughout the European Union.
“The draft regulation will now be considered by the European
Parliament and the Council of Ministers for adoption by the
co-decision procedure,” explained the EC announcement.
“There is evidence that cat and dog fur is being placed on
the European market, usually undeclared as such or disguised as
synthetic and other types of fur,” the EC announcement summarized.
“The vast majority of the cat and dog fur is believed to be imported
from third countries, notably China.”
Fifteen of the 25 EU member nations have already individually
introduced legislation against cat and dog fur. “The proposed
regulation adopted today addresses EU citizens concerns, and creates
a harmonized approach,” the EC announcement stipulated. “It also
establishes a system of information exchange on the detection of cat
and dog fur.”

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European Parliament moves against dog & cat fur, seal pelts

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 2006:
The European Parliament on October 13, 2006 approved a ban
on importing and selling dog and cat fur in member nations, as part
of the first European Community plan for animal protection.
Earlier, on September 6, 368 European Parliament
legislators signed a declaration asking the European Community to ban
imports of seal products from Canada. Not formally endorsed by the
European Union assembly, the non-binding request sought to reinforce
legislation already in effect in Belgium, Italy, and the
Netherlands, and adopted in October by Germany. Norway, the
largest European buyer of Canadian seal pelts, is not a European
Community member.

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Mink farm raids

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 2006:
Midnight raiders on October 14, 2006 released 11,000 mink
from a farm in Oza does Rios, Spain, and released as many as 5,000
from two other sites in Galicia. Galician
farmers produced about 80% of the 400,000 mink who are pelted each
year in Spain, the Barcelona-based animal rights group Fundacion
Altarriba told Associated Press.
About 6,500 mink got past the farm perimeter fences,
Galician authorities said. About 4,550 were recovered within 48
hours, 70% of them dead.
Having fast metabolisms and no hunting experience, ranched
mink rarely thrive after release, but mink who survived in Britain
are blamed for hunting water voles to the verge of extinction.
Efforts to extirpate the mink have not succeeded, but reintroducing
otters is working, reported Laura Benesi of the Oxford University
Wildlife Conservation Research Unit in September 2006.
Bonesi and team released 17 otters into the upper Thames.
“When the otters arrived there were 60 or more mink in this small
area,” Bonesi told Sunday Times environment editor Jonathan Leake.
“The mink did not disappear completely, but within a few months they
were doing much less damage.”

Tethering restrained in Scotland, California

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 2006:
The Animal Health & Welfare Scotland Act,
taking effect on October 6, 2006, increases the
potential penalty for cruelty to a fine of up to
£20,000 plus a year in jail; authorizes animal
health officers, state veterinary officers, and
Scottish SPCA inspectors to warn suspected
violators and initiate animal seizure
proceedings; restricts tethering dogs; and
prohibits docking dogs’ tails. “Let us hope
that the new obligation on animal owners will
mean no more animals kept in conditions which are
barely tolerable,” Advocates for Animals
spokesperson Libby Anderson told BBC News.

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The king, the baron, a celebrity & hunting “sportsmanship”

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 2006:
The Russian business daily Kommersant on
October 19, 2006 published a written allegation
by Vologda region deputy hunting chief Sergei
Starostin that a “good-natured and joyful bear”
named Mitrofan was in August 2006 taken from his
home at a local holiday resort, “generously fed
vodka mixed with honey,” and “pushed into a
field” where “His Highness Juan Carlos of Spain
took him out with one shot.”
The king, 68, “neither hunted with
Russian President Vladimir Putin nor killed a
bear,” a palace spokesperson told Paul Haven of
Associated Press. Haven noted that the
Kommersant account never mentioned Putin.

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